Out this week is a new digest-sized trade paperback devoted to everyone’s favorite mutant, Storm. Call it a starter pack or simply a smattering of earlier Storm stories, but either way this book collects a few often-overlooked Storm stories. Interestingly, the collection features a variety of slight changes to Ororo’s origins, making for a schizophrenic read.
Running 224 pages, this smaller-sized book is clearly meant for smaller hands as readers are introduced to Ororo Munroe, aka Storm. This collection opens with the four-issue story Ororo: Before the Storm, which has a YA feel.
The opening story is written by Mark Sumerak with art by Carlo Barberi (and Scott Hepburn on #2), a tale focused on Ororo’s days as a street thief in Cairo. She’s young, but already showing she’s a natural-born leader. Her life is relatively safe as she lives with a band of thieves run by one man. That is until a strange man looking for artifacts shows up.
Speaking of which, the story opens with an Indiana Jones-style figure who doesn’t add a lot to the book. It serves to show the villain is up to no good, but did it really require that many pages?
The cartoony art suits the young age of the characters and also suits the Indiana Jones-style deathtraps the kids encounter. There’s an Aladdin feel to the story in general–we see Ororo and her friends thieve in streets that look similar to the cartoon–but it all leads to a major revelation involving Apocalypse. It’s hard to say if this story is still within the canon, but it’s a neat way to tie Storm to the yet-to-be awakened Apocalypse.
The opening story is well worth a look.
Credit: Marvel
Following this four-parter is a smattering of single-issue stories. First up is Uncanny Origins #9 by Jim Alexander and Marc Campos. We learn all about Storm’s early life starting with her birth in New York, the tragic death of her parents, and her eventual meeting with Xavier in the streets of Cairo. This story doesn’t quite add up with the previous one as Ororo learns about her powers in a different time and place. In general, it’s a nice primer on Storm, though.
Following this is Uncanny X-Men: First Class Giant-Size Special by Scot Gray and David A. Williams. Told over just five pages, this story suggests Storm hates her parents due to her current state as a street thief. One can imagine an exploration of Ororo’s relationship with the head thief was teased here, but it’s an odd one-off.
The next two stories feature Storm a bit older and wiser. First is Uncanny X-Men: First Class #4 by Scott Gray and David A. Williams which has Storm team up with other female X-Men characters. Then Todd Dezago and Valentine De Landro have Storm team up with Spider-Man in Marvel Age: Spider-Man Team-Up #5 to help Rogue. Both are more about showing Storm in her element as a hero than focusing on her origins like the previous tales.
Following this is the classic Uncanny X-Men #265-266 by Chris Claremont and artists Bill Jaaska and Mike Collins. This is a classic in part because it’s the introduction of Gambit, but it also features Storm de-aged. Storm can’t remember who her parents are, which puts into question whether the flashbacks seen in previous stories are actually true or not.
Wrapping up the book is a three-page story from Black Panther #23 with a story by Saint Bodhi and a script by Danny Lore with art by ALitha E. Martinez. It’s a touching tale as Storm helps a young African mutant in distress. Ororo connects with the girl and relates her own upbringing with her and how rage is natural, but it also pushes the good people in your life away.
Ororo: Before the Storm is an interesting example of how superheroes with uncertain origins can end up with convoluted and sometimes confusing backstories when creators attempt to tell them over decades. Ororo is a strong character and a natural-born leader, that’s evident in every story, but if there was any conclusion to be made after reading this book it’s that Storm deserves a proper origin that’s official canon. That, and she certainly deserves a solo series.
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